HOT AND SUNNY
We have had a lot of hot sunny days during July and August, months which can be a bit difficult for trout fishing anyway. Listen to fly fishermen and nothing ever suits; it’s too hot, too cold; too windy, too still; too sunny, too cloudy; too dry, too wet…. and so it goes. These are, I strongly suspect, merely excuses used by all of us to disguise the fact that, on a particular day, we did not fish successfully. We did not adopt the correct tactics, line, leader, flies, locations and, thus, caught few, if any, fish.
I watched a friend of mine at Barnsfold Water in East Lancashire a couple of weeks ago. It was hot and sunny (around 30C) with a cloudless sky and a gentle breeze that covered half of each water in a reasonable ripple. Everyone fished into the ripple, mainly with floating lines and buzzer/nymph flies. No one was catching; a dozen sweat-soaked, frustrated anglers, all persisting with what were perceived as good tactics for this water at this time of the year.
Lateral Thinking
My friend, always a bit short on patience, decided to take a break and retired to the fishing lodge. Refreshed after a couple of pies and some hot sweet tea, he re-emerged and strode off towards the flat calm area of the far lake. There was no one fishing within a couple of hundred yards of him. His first fish came second cast and half a dozen others followed at ten-fifteen minute intervals. Good fish, too, the smallest was about four pounds.
The other anglers began to mutter unkind things. How was he catching good fish regularly in what they perceived to be the worse possible scenario? It was flat calm, no ripple, the wind blowing away from the angler, the sun was shining brilliantly but he was hooking and landing good rainbows.
I was dispatched to the other side of the water to find out what was going on. His philosophy was simple; if the generally accepted methods were not working and fish were not being caught then do something quite different and see what happens. There certainly were no dividends to endlessly casting a floating line of buzzers and/or nymphs as we were all doing on that particular day.
His tactics were to employ a nine foot, six weight rod with a clear intermediate line and a fry imitation on his leader. It worked beautifully; the big rainbows lying down near the bottom were able to see the tasty little fry imitation jerking and struggling through the upper layers and some of them simply could not resist such a juicy looking bait. Up they came like small torpedoes and took the hook with fast surging runs.
I did not report back; it was too hot to walk that far. Instead I tucked into the bank about fifty yards away and tried his tactics and I was into a fish within minutes. My friend was described to me later as “a lucky bastard” by one of the other gents. Nothing of the sort; he used his intelligence and then worked hard for his fish. His lateral thinking paid rich dividends.
A Change of Tactics
This week I visited another water some miles away and further up in the hills. It was hot, sticky, bright and wind-free. There was hardly a ripple anywhere on the water and these tended to come and go all too briefly. There were a lot of fish swirling around at or just under the surface.
After walking around the perimeter I decided that a roving role would be best and cast to individual fish. The reactions were varied. I looked for those little peninsulas that form on all reservoirs when the water levels get lower. This gave me a hundred and eighty degree range of casting which meant that I could cover plenty of fish without moving around. I’m sure that if you stand as still as possible, even though the fish may be able to see you, you soon blend in with background and cease to represent danger to them. I also try and limit any false casting to a minimum for the same reason.
I started with a nine foot, six weight rod and a floating line with a CDC buzzer on a three pound leader which attracted some interest but no takes from any of the trout. After half a dozen casts I changed pattern to size 14 floating Daddy. On the second cast this was taken by a smallish but lively rainbow which was released without being netted. Six more casts and no takers so I changed flies again and put on a GRHE which quickly attracted attention and another smallish rainbow came to the bank.
On a hot clear day I found that the fish inspected the flies and if the first fish disregarded the fly, the other fish did not even bother to take a look. So, instead of persevering with a favoured fly and thrashing around I kept changing the fly and met with moderate success. I thought of my friend’s lateral thinking. The fish that were attracted seemed to be the smaller ones up to two pounds, perhaps recent ‘stockies’.
I was always brought up with the maxim that you should fish with the lightest tackle that will safely do the job on the day. Quite often, especially in wet and windy conditions, I use a 9 1/2 foot rod and an 8 weight line, especially if I wish to get my fly out on a bigger reservoir. In the warmer, clearer Summer conditions I usually scale down to a floating DT or WF 5 or 6 line when accuracy and presentation are the two most important factors. I have seen anglers fishing with smaller rods and lighter lines than this on reservoirs and lakes and performing very successfully, too, as they stalk rainbows and brownies in the margins. It looks excellent sport and I’ve been wondering whether to try my small river rod for this type of fishing.
Tight Lines!
Eddie Caldwell
